Login - 2014_smith (graduation year, underscore, last name)
Password - bulldog (unless the student has changed it!)
Forgotten passwords can be emailed to the student's email address
Typing assignment grading...
Each week's assignment has TWO parts -
The weekly lesson (worth 30 points)
The weekly practice test (worth 10 points)
Assignments are due on the Friday of the week assigned, by 4:00pm
Late work will be accepted for exceptional circumstances
Late LESSONS will be accepted for half credit
Late TESTS will NOT be accepted for half credit
The take away - if you can only do one on time - do the test!!!!!
This year's typing program....
There are many typing programs out there, and each offer different benefits. I've looked at many of them, and decided to continue with www.typingweb.com, which I used last year with the 6th - 8th grade. My eventual goal is for SDS students to begin typing instruction in 3rd or 4th grade, with an appropriate level of proficiency achieved by the end of 5th grade. For this year, the program we will be using with 5th and 6th grade this year is www.typingweb.com. The students will be using the basic account, which contains 26 lessons covering the entire keyboard.
My goal is for the students to be familiar with the location of the keys on the keyboard. I am more focused on their knowing the location than their typing speed. Additionally, while I focus on teaching the home row keys and the associated finger positioning, I will not insist that students believe this to be the only, best method of typing. Remembering that students use keyboards of all different shapes and sizes, the awareness of key location relative to the others is - in my mind - the most important aspect of this skill set. Students today type on desktops, laptops, tablets, virtual keyboards, smartphones, and use swype features as they text and email.... the keys are all in the same qwerty format, but the size of the keyboard and keys definitely changes!
To help the students get started, we have spent two class periods on the typing program. For the next few weeks, I will have them complete the practice tests in class, but will ask that they complete the lessons on their own time. The lessons should take approximately 20 minutes.... if they are spending significantly more time on the lesson, then we will need to look at their practice habits or the difficulty of the lesson. During the first week of lessons, most students completed both the test and the lesson within 20 - 30 minutes.
At home hints:
Encourage your student to type regularly - have them type up your grocery list, send an email to Grandma... anything that gets them typing
Encourage - or insist - that they use the home row keys while typing and that they NOT look at their fingers (or at least not much!)
Have them work on their lessons in a focused manner - and don't let them chat while they're doing their work!
They should mentally say the letters in their head as they type (or out loud)
Once they are able to locate the letters, they will automatically move to typing words (when we type we are rarely thinking of the letters - we think of the words)
Both activities - the lesson and the test - should take no more than 30 minutes of your student's time! I can pull reports showing the on task, active typing time spent by the student each week. If you find that your student is spending more time, please let me know so we can make an adjustment to the lessons - typically, however, when we look at reports we find that the student is spending more time in front of the keyboard, but may not actually be typing that entire time.... or, at the beginning we will see that the student is working for 100% accuracy and may be moving more slowly for that reason. Whatever the situation, we want this to be a successful experience, so please let me know if there are any concerns.
Typing Assignments.....
Click on the link to open the typing assignment schedule for the rest of the year
Typing Access.....Typing assignment grading...
This year's typing program....
There are many typing programs out there, and each offer different benefits. I've looked at many of them, and decided to continue with www.typingweb.com, which I used last year with the 6th - 8th grade. My eventual goal is for SDS students to begin typing instruction in 3rd or 4th grade, with an appropriate level of proficiency achieved by the end of 5th grade. For this year, the program we will be using with 5th and 6th grade this year is www.typingweb.com. The students will be using the basic account, which contains 26 lessons covering the entire keyboard.
My goal is for the students to be familiar with the location of the keys on the keyboard. I am more focused on their knowing the location than their typing speed. Additionally, while I focus on teaching the home row keys and the associated finger positioning, I will not insist that students believe this to be the only, best method of typing. Remembering that students use keyboards of all different shapes and sizes, the awareness of key location relative to the others is - in my mind - the most important aspect of this skill set. Students today type on desktops, laptops, tablets, virtual keyboards, smartphones, and use swype features as they text and email.... the keys are all in the same qwerty format, but the size of the keyboard and keys definitely changes!
To help the students get started, we have spent two class periods on the typing program. For the next few weeks, I will have them complete the practice tests in class, but will ask that they complete the lessons on their own time. The lessons should take approximately 20 minutes.... if they are spending significantly more time on the lesson, then we will need to look at their practice habits or the difficulty of the lesson. During the first week of lessons, most students completed both the test and the lesson within 20 - 30 minutes.
At home hints:
Both activities - the lesson and the test - should take no more than 30 minutes of your student's time! I can pull reports showing the on task, active typing time spent by the student each week. If you find that your student is spending more time, please let me know so we can make an adjustment to the lessons - typically, however, when we look at reports we find that the student is spending more time in front of the keyboard, but may not actually be typing that entire time.... or, at the beginning we will see that the student is working for 100% accuracy and may be moving more slowly for that reason. Whatever the situation, we want this to be a successful experience, so please let me know if there are any concerns.
A few articles on typing.....
Should we teach typing? No!
Out of Touch with Typing - Yes!
Should Typing Replace Cursive in Schools? CNN
A New Look at Research Based Keyboarding Instruction - White Paper
I will add more information later but this is a start :-) !!!!!